ALIENS

Overall Impression – An incredible action-horror classic that deserves a place on your DVD shelf.

THE FOUR QUESTIONS

Who’s your main character? – Ripley.

What’s she trying to accomplish? –Professional: wipe out the aliens for good.  Personal: forge new relationships with Newt and Hicks.  Private: get over her fear of the aliens.

Who’s trying to stop her? – The aliens, Burk.

What happens if she fails? – They’re all gonna die, man!

THE FOUR ARCHETYPES

Orphan – Ripley is found marooned in space, the only survivor of her massacred crew.  She has outlived everybody she knew, including her daughter.  She’s totally alone.

Wanderer – Ripley meets the marines, including Hicks and Bishop.  They prepare for war and investigate a colony believed to be harboring aliens.  They investigate, discovering clues that indicate an alien attack, and find Newt, a young girl who managed to survive.  Ripley negotiates her feelings for her lost daughter as she befriends the helpless Newt, and they soon learn that aliens have nested in the colony.

Warrior – Ripley takes command of the marines as they try to fend off the aliens long enough to escape the planet.  When she loses Newt, Ripley must venture back into the alien nest to rescue her.

Martyr – Ripley faces the alien queen one on one, and is willing to die to blast it out of an airlock and destroy the aliens forever.

AND, IN THE END…

Definitely one of my top 10 favorites.  It’s got it all: a great antagonist, a unique and driven heroine, and marines splattering aliens with giant guns. ALIENS is also great to study because it’s so well structured.

One element I’ll draw attention to is ALIENS’ solid ending.  When Ripley blasts the alien queen out of the air lock, she simultaneously destroys the aliens for good (PROFESSIONAL), saves Newt (PERSONAL), and overcomes her ultimate fear (PRIVATE). By definitively answering the PROFESSIONAL, PERSONAL, and PRIVATE components of the Central Question as closely together as possible, ALIENS delivers a satisfying ending that’s on the mark, clean, and has impact.

Another example, STAR WARS: when Luke fires the final proton torpedo, he simultaneously destroys the Death Star (PROFESSIONAL), saves Princess Leia (PERSONAL) and gives himself over to The Force to become a Jedi like his father (PRIVATE).  A third example, SPIDERMAN: Peter Parker simultaneously defeats the Green Goblin and saves New York (PROFESSIONAL), saves MJ (PERSONAL) and accepts his responsibility as a superhero (PRIVATE).

Paying attention to when the Central Question is answered also helps you avoid structuring a movie that keeps going… and going… and going.  With this approach, you’ll know when the movie should end, because after the Central Question is answered, there isn’t much more to say!

On a random note, I’ve always thought that puppets beat CG when it comes to believing that characters and creatures are real, my logic being that puppets are made of something tangible, whereas CG just objects just aren’t really there.  IMO, The aliens in ALIENS are infinitely more believable that anything that could be created with CG, even today.  I’d be interested in hearing some opinions on this.  When it comes to creating something filmic… puppetry or CG?

– Dan Pilditch